Jean-Pascal Flavien
born in 1971 in Le Mans, France; lives in Berlin, Germany
A Day before a Day, March 2005, 2005
red crayon on paper
38.8 × 45.5 × 3 cm (framed)
Acquisition evn collection 2007
Inv. No. 0167
No Level, March 2005, 2005
red crayon on paper
38.8 × 45.5 × 3 cm (framed)
Acquisition evn collection 2007
Inv. No. 0168
Red Moravec, June 2004, 2004
red crayon on paper
38.8 × 45.5 × 3 cm (framed)
Acquisition evn collection 2007
Inv. No. 0169
The uncontested signaling effect of the color red is also a fascinating element about Jean-Pascal Flavien’s drawings. It would not suffice to see them as mere studies for his installations. The artist himself characterizes his drawings as means of perceiving and creating spaces. The landscapes in the drawings describe the objects’ surroundings and, on the basis of an archival visual memory, open the beholder’s mind for territory yet to be discovered. The motifs – craters, oversized thistle plants, and, most important, dinosaurs exploring the scenery – seem to derive from a natural history course. However, it would be foreign to the artist’s nature to directly refer to certain epochs, let alone events. The strong naturalism determining the formal realizations of his borrowings from paleontology should not be confused with a love of realism. Rather, the treacherous visibility of this type of nature leaves the invisible to be revealed. In present-day society, dinosaurs and their surroundings take on the role of symbols; they stand for untamed wildlife, an archaic world, and an unpredictable nature and contradict the principle of measurability prevailing all spheres of today’s life. Jean-Pascal Flavien’s works encourage us to rediscover the incalculable and lead us into a world we believed to have left behind emotionally.continue reading
Heike Maier-Rieper, 2011
Translation: Wolfgang Astelbauer